How to Remove Wallpaper Professionally

Getting rid of wallpaper and replacing it with paint or new wallpaper can be a tough job, if you don’t do it the right way. You can scrape and work yourself into frustration when you aren’t using the right techniques. We want to show you how you can get that wallpaper off quickly and simply, without damaging your walls.

Prep the Room
Before you do anything else, you should make sure that you won’t damage any electrical components or electrocute yourself. So, turn off the circuit breaker for the room to avoid damage to outlets, switches and lights.

Then, place drop cloths along the floor and over any furniture in the room. It’s best to get your furniture out of the area you are working in, but we understand that not everyone can remove all their furniture when they are wallpapering. Just make sure it is covered up, so that it doesn’t become damaged.

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Soak the Wallpaper
Painterly start the removal process by scoring lines on the wallpaper. Use a scoring tool, which is like small roller with spikes. Don’t cut so deeply that you damage the wall, but make sure you are breaking through the wallpaper and making a way for water to soak through and get under the paper to thoroughly saturate it.

Your next step is getting the wallpaper completely wet. While water works okay for this, you will be far more effective using a mixture of vinegar and hot water. You need to soak the wallpaper entirely and not just sprinkle it slightly.

The best way to cover the wallpaper in your liquid mixture is to use a spray bottle like many homeowners use out in the garden to water their plants. Something with a pump action and a relatively large tank would be perfect for this job. You can focus your spraying and yet cover a lot of area in a short amount of time. Be sure all the wallpaper is properly soaked before you start to take it off.

Removing the Wallpaper
To get the wallpaper off the wall, we suggest using a scraping tool. You can use either a razor scraper or a spackling knife. Either one of these should work well at removing the wallpaper without harming the wall itself. If you are having a tough time getting the wallpaper to come off with your scraping tool, then you need to wet down the paper some more. Just saturate it with water, wait for about 20 minutes for the paper to absorb the water, then come back and wet it once more.

This should make it easy to peel right off when you are scraping.

Removing the Glue
Finally, you will need to remove the glue under the wallpaper. This should be easier than getting the wallpaper off, and you can use a wet rag to scrub at it. Keep turning the rag over as it becomes saturated with glue. You can use your scraping tool for places where there is a lot of glue to remove. When you are done, just allow the walls to dry completely before you begin painting your walls.